Report 37565: Hunters hear possible vocalizations, large head seen peeking from behind boulders near Franklin

On November 19th 2012 the first day of hunting season in West Virginia, I experienced a few events that I am unable to explain. My step father and I were hunting in Pendleton County and had split up on either side of a ridge. At around 6 am before daylight, I heard a loud "whooping" that was so loud it almost sounded as if it came from an amplifier. This only happened once, but my step father and I both heard it and agreed it wasn't a normal animal sound. After lunch we went back into the woods. We split up again, this time I was going to try to hunt a thicker area than I did in the morning. The treestand I was going to had large boulders behind it with some very thick vegetation. I began climbing the treestand when all of a sudden in behind me in the boulders going up the ridge I heard what sounded like a very angry growl and what sounded like two rocks being smashed together violently. I jumped halfway out of the tree off the ladder, and as I turned around to see what had growled at me (which I thought was a bear) I saw a large black/dark brown head and shoulders quickly duck behind a boulder. This was the most frightened I have ever been in the woods. I backpedalled as quickly as I could in the other direction, never losing sight of the boulder. When I was about 100 yards away, the thing peeked out again and quickly shot back behind the boulder when it saw I was watching. Needless to say I got out of there. No idea what this was, but whatever it was, wasn't happy.